Tag Archives: joan slish

Joan Slish has long been a source of fascinating inside information at Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF. She sometimes seems to tell it like it is, even to the MRFF’s detriment (see here, here, and here, for example).

Slish is one of several people who “corresponds” with those who write hate mail to the MRFF — even if it comes from a supposedly fake email address. (Her 1500-word responses are almost precisely the same copy/paste text every time.) Why bother “writing” to a junk address? Apparently, the correspondence is distributed among the MRFF faithful as some sort of mark of pride. Fair enough, if that’s really where you want to exert your energy.

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s research assistant, self-taught “historian” Chris Rodda, may have competition for her job from Catherine Wallace of Northwestern University in Illinois. Wallace, a “cultural historian and literary critic” is part of the Feinberg School of Medicine and recently described her belief that [emphasis added]

the Christian fundamentalist movement in the United States is more dangerous than Islamic terrorism.

Former Assembly of God pastor Joan Slish, an advisory board member of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF, is a constant source of delightful insight into the MRFF’s sometimes opaque logic. Most recently, she responded to an MRFF detractor, as she often does, with a 1,000-word post that was nearly identical to every other post she makes. There were a couple of notable deviations, however.

To place the opened, highlighted, underlined Christian Bible on a military desk 24/7 for other service members to see elevates the Christian God above all others and is in violation of the Constitution, Separation of Church and State under the Establishment Clause, Reynolds v. U.S., Lemon v. Kurtzman, the Lemon Test, Parker v. Levy and AFI 1-1, Section 2.12.

Yes, the MRFF appears to believe that a Bible on a military member’s desk is the state establishing religion. Apparently ISIS is doing it wrong. Put a Koran on a desk and the caliphate is won, according to Mikey Weinstein.

We’ll ignore Slish’s ignorance regarding a citizen being in “violation” of court cases. (That’s not the branch of government that makes or enforces laws, Joan.)

Chris Rodda, the sometime research assistant for Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, seems to have a recurring problem with the truth.

In one of the more glaring examples, she once claimed Mikey Weinstein didn’t pay himself one cent — and all the while Weinstein was paying himself: more than a quarter million dollars.

In another, just last year she proclaimed the MRFF didn’t object to US troops “privately engaging in any religious activity” — just after the MRFF had objected to US troops privately engaging in a church service of all things.

Both of these untruths were intended to sway public perceptions about the MRFF: The first was an attempt to convince people Mikey Weinstein was a selfless martyr, rather than using his self-founded, self-run “charity” to line his wallet, as many now believe. The second was Read more

While Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has claimed his Military Religious Freedom Foundation is advocating for religious freedom, claims by his critics that his group is actually “anti-Christian” have apparently stung — and stuck.

Unfortunately for him, his own staff is making his critics’ case.

A self-described former Assembly of God pastor, Joan Slish, is a member of Weinstein’s advisory board and has previously provided great insight into how the sausage is made at the MRFF. She is a go-to MRFF advocate for replying to their “hate mail,” apparently because she has stellar “copy/paste” skills. Each of her identical replies, dutifully posted by the MRFF, is a robotic, 1,000-word diatribe that generally has nothing to do with what their detractor wrote.

As previously noted, Michael Weinstein boasts about his hate mail like some people do pictures of their grandkids. The MRFF publishes some of those emails, and, more often than not, a “volunteer” staff member posts an online rebuttal. The replies are often critical and sarcastic, meaning they’re mostly red meat for MRFF acolytes. Occasionally, though, one reveals the underbelly of the MRFF opposition to religious liberty.

Such was the case with Joan Slish, an MRFF “advisory board” member who has two claims to fame: First, according to the MRFF website, she left the Assembly of God because they were the wrong kind of Christian (though she oddly still claims an AoG Pastorate). Second, she inadvertently revealed in 2011 that the MRFF was the arbiter of “true” Christianity — telling the world the MRFF would vitriolically attack the religious liberty of the wrong kind of Christian. (Weinstein was already doing that; Slish was simply the first ‘staff member’ to admit it.)

Now she can add a third trophy: An official MRFF email reply riddled with statements at times false, at others ridiculous, and almost always comical — but one that also has another peek behind the MRFF curtain.

She falters right out of the gate in following the MRFF tradition of Read more

Five Air Force Academy instructors and an advocacy group are suing to stop the school from holding a religious event. (emphasis added)

One Academy faculty member, David Mullin of the Economics Department, is listed by name; four others are listed as “John Doe.” Counsel appears to be David Lane, of Killmer, Lane & Newman in Denver. Lane appears to have previously represented Ward Churchill, the “Balloon Boy” parents, and a student suing her school over a canceled William Ayers speech.

In its ongoing letter writing campaign attempting to dissuade Gen Gould from inviting Lt Clebe McClary to a prayer luncheon, the MRFF reveals why it wants McClary banned from the Air Force Academy: He’s not a “true Christian.”

1st Lt. Clebe McClary should not be allowed to speak at the prayer luncheon because he does not represent true Christianity but Read more